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Bus lane

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For the 2007 Thai film, see Bus Lane (film).
"Tram lane" redirects here. For areas exclusively for trams, see Reserved track.

Bus rapid transit lane of Transjakarta in Jakarta, separated from heavy traffic
Bus rapid transit lane of Transmetro in Guatemala City
Select Bus Service bus lane on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn, New York
Bus lane in Jingtong Expressway in Beijing. During rush hour the bus is able to completely avoid the traffic that cars are stuck in.
Bus lane in the middle of Roosevelt Road in Taipei, Taiwan
BRT lane laid on Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung, Taiwan

A bus lane or bus-only lane is a lane restricted to buses, generally to speed up public transport that would be otherwise held up by traffic congestion. The related term busway describes a roadway completely dedicated for use by buses, whilst bus gate describes a short bus lane often used as a short cut for public transport. Bus lanes are a key component of a high-quality bus rapid transit (BRT) network, improving bus travel speeds and reliability by reducing delay caused by other traffic.

A dedicated bus lane may occupy only part of a roadway which also has lanes serving general automotive traffic; in contrast to a transit mall which is a pedestrianized roadway also served by transit.

History

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The first bus lane is often erroneously attributed to Chicago, where in 1939 Sheridan Road was installed with reversible lanes north of Foster Avenue.[1][2] The setup consisted of three-lanes towards the peak direction (south in the morning; north in the evening), and one contraflow lane. None of the lanes exclusively carried buses, but were designed to facilitate bus operations. In 1948, the East Side Trolley Tunnel in Providence, Rhode Island was converted to bus-only use and became the first dedicated busway in the United States, continuing to operate to this day. In 1956 Nashville became the first city to implement on-street bus lanes. Later that year, Chicago implemented a bus lane in the center of Washington Street, a five lane one-way street downtown.[3][4]

The first bus lanes in Europe were established in 1963 in the German city of Hamburg, when the tram system was closed and the former dedicated tram tracks were converted for bus travel. Other large German cities soon followed, and the implementation of bus lanes was officially sanctioned in the German highway code in 1970. Many experts from other countries (Japan among the first) studied the German example and implemented similar solutions. On 15 January 1964 the first bus lane in France was designated along the quai du Louvre in Paris and the first contraflow lane was established on the old pont de l’Alma on 15 June 1966.[5]

On 26 February 1968 the first bus lane in London was put into service on Vauxhall Bridge.[6] The first contraflow bus lane in the UK was introduced in King's Road, Reading as a temporary measure when the road was made one-way (eastwards to Cemetery Junction) on 16 June 1968. The initial reason was to save the expense of rerouting the trolleybus, which was due to be scrapped on 3 November of that year. However the experiment proved so successful that it was made permanent for use by motor buses.[7] In October 1971 Runcorn opened the world's first bus rapid transitway. Upon opening, the 7-mile (11 km) busway featured specialized stations, signal priority, grade separation, and was expanded to 14 miles (23 km) by 1980.[4][8][9]

By 1972 there were over 140 kilometres (87 mi) of with-flow bus lanes in 100 cities within OECD member countries, and the network grew substantially in the following decades.[10]

The El Monte Busway between El Monte and Downtown Los Angeles was the first dedicated busway in the US, constructed in 1974.[11]

Design

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Bus lanes may be located in different locations on a street, such as on the sides of a street near the curb, or down the center. They may be long, continuous networks, or short segments used to allow buses to bypass bottlenecks or reduce route complexity, such as in a contraflow bus lane.[12]

Bus lanes may be demarcated in several ways. Descriptive text such as "BUS LANE" may be marked prominently on the road surface, particularly at the beginning and end. Some cities use a diamond-shaped pavement marking to indicate an exclusive bus lane. The road surface may have a distinctive color, usually red, which has been shown to reduce prohibited vehicles from entering bus lanes.[13] Road signs may communicate when a bus lane is in effect.[14]

Bus lanes may also be physically separated from other traffic using bollards, curbs, or other raised elements.[15]

In some cities, such as The Hague in the Netherlands, buses are allowed to use reserved tram tracks, usually laid in the middle of the road and marked with the text "Lijnbus".

Bus gates

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A bus gate in the centre of Coventry, England

In the United Kingdom bus gates are common in towns and cities. A bus gate consists of a short section of road that only buses and authorised vehicles (typically taxis) can pass through. They are normally marked with the same street signage as bus lanes, but have "BUS GATE" marked on the road surface.[16] Bus gates are normally used as "short cuts" for public transport at junctions, roundabouts or through one-way systems.[17] They do not necessarily have to have physical gates.

Operation

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Bus lanes may have separate sets of dedicated traffic signals, to allow transit signal priority at intersections.[18]

Peak-only bus lanes are enforced only at certain times of the day, usually during rush hour, reverting to a general purpose or parking lane at other times. Peak-only bus lanes may be in effect only in the main direction of travel, such as towards a downtown during morning rush hour traffic, with the buses using general purpose lanes in the other direction.[19]

Entire streets can be designated as bus lanes (such as Oxford Street in London, Princes Street in Edinburgh, or Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn), allowing buses, taxis and delivery vehicles only, or a contra-flow bus lane can allow buses to travel in the opposite direction to other vehicles.[20]

Some locations allow bicyclists or taxis to use bus lanes, however where bus or bicycle volumes are high, mixed traffic operations may result in uncomfortable conditions or delays.[21] Certain other vehicles may also be permitted in bus lanes, such as taxis, high occupancy vehicles, motorcycles, or bicycles. Police, ambulance services and fire brigades can also use these lanes.[22]

In the Netherlands mixed bus/cycle lanes are uncommon. According to the Sustainable Safety guidelines they would violate the principle of homogeneity and put road users of very different masses and speed behaviour into the same lane, which is generally discouraged.[23]

Some locations have allowed access to bus lanes to electric cars and/or hybrid cars. Oslo removed one such exception in 2017 following protests due to congestion in bus lanes. The large number of electric vehicles on Norwegian roads slowed buses, defeating the purpose of bus lanes.[24]

Enforcement

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Traffic enforcers in Manila, Philippines, ticketing unauthorized vehicles using the EDSA Busway.

Bus lanes can become ineffective if weak enforcement allows use by unauthorized vehicles[25] or illegal parking. Center-running bus lanes avoid the problem of private vehicles blocking the lane by double parking for loading of passengers or cargo.

Evidence from the operation of urban arterials in Brisbane shows that a properly enforced bus lane, operating as designed without interference, can increase passenger throughput. In 2009 and 2010 traffic surveys showed that in Brisbane on a number of urban arterials with bus and transit lanes, noncompliance rates were approaching 90%. Following enhanced enforcement of the lanes, noncompliance rates dropped and overall efficiency of the bus and transit lanes improved with an up to 12% increase in total passenger throughput in the lane. Average bus journey times dropped, in some cases, by up to 19%.[26]

Some cities, including San Francisco and New York, employ automated camera enforcement, using either stationary cameras adjacent to the bus lane, or cameras on the front of buses to automatically issue citations to vehicles obstructing the bus lane.[27][28]

Effectiveness

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Bus lanes give priority to buses, cutting down on journey times where roads are congested with other traffic and increasing the reliability of buses. The introduction of bus lanes can significantly assist in the reduction of air pollution.[29]

Bus lanes marked with colored pavement have been shown to reduce intrusions into bus lanes, speeding travel time and increasing bus reliability.[30]

Major networks

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Some network lengths of bus lanes in major cities, listed by buses per km of bus lane):

City Country Population (million) Buses (#s) Population per bus Bus lanes (km) Buses per 1 km of bus lane
Helsinki Finland 0.6 470[31] 1,238 44[32] 11
Sydney Australia 4.3 1,900 2,260 90+[33] 21
Santiago Chile 6.5 4,600 1,400 200[34] 23
London England 8.7 8,600 1,010 304[35] 28
Singapore Singapore 5.5 3,775 1,200 200 (23 km are 24-hour restricted bus lane)[36] 29
Seoul South Korea 10.4 8,910 1,167 282[37] 32
Madrid Spain 7 2,022[38] 2,720 50[39] 40
Jakarta Indonesia 10.1 524 5,000 184.31[40] 30
Bogotá Colombia 6.7 1,080[41] 6,200 84[41] 13
São Paulo Brazil 10.9 14,900[42] 730 155[43] 96
Kunming People's Republic of China 5.7 ~ ~ 42[44]
Beijing People's Republic of China 19.6 26,000 754 294 88
Hong Kong Hong Kong 6.8 19,768[45] 666 22[46] 899
Vienna Austria 1.8 56[47]
New York United States 8.5 5,777 1,480 222.7[48] 26
Auckland New Zealand 1.6 1,360[49] 1,176 128 (by the end of 2017)[50] 11
Country Highway Bus lanes (km) Section
South Korea Gyeongbu Expressway 137.4 Hannam IC (Seoul) ~ Sintanjin IC (Daejeon)
Hong Kong Tuen Mun Road 8.5[51] So Kwun Wat ~ Sham Tseng

The busiest bus lane in the United States is the Lincoln Tunnel XBL (exclusive bus lane) along the Lincoln Tunnel Approach and Helix in Hudson County, New Jersey, which carries approximately 700 buses per hour during morning peak times an average of one bus every 5.1 seconds.[52] In contrast, the Cross-Harbour Tunnel in Hong Kong carries 14,500 buses per day,[53] or an average of about 605 an hour all day (not just peak times), but the bus lane must give way to all the other road users resulting in long queues of buses.[further explanation needed]

Criticism

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Some residents and observers criticize bus lane plans and implementations because they take space from other vehicles or require road widening,[54] which can require the use of eminent domain.[55]

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See also

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bus lanes.

References

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  1. ^ Milestones in U.S. Public Transportation History Archived 7 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine (from the APTA website. Retrieved 6 December 2007.)
  2. ^ History of the NTD and Transit in the US Archived 12 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine (from the NTD website. Retrieved 6 December 2007.)
  3. ^ Agrawal, Asha Weinstein; Goldman, Todd; Hannaford, Nancy (April 2012). "Shared-Use Bus Priority Lanes on City Streets: Case Studies in Design and Management" (PDF). Mineta Transportation Institute. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  4. ^ a b Levinson, Herbert S.; Hoey, William F.; Sanders, David B.; Wyn, F. Houston (1973). Bus Use of Highways: State of the Art (PDF). National Cooperative Highway Research Program Report 143 (Report). Highway Research Board. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  5. ^ Les zones bleues et les couloirs pour autobus Archived 14 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine (from the AMTUIR website, Musée des Transports Urbains. Retrieved 6 December 2007.(in French))
  6. ^ Matthews, Peter (2008), London's Bridges, Oxford: Shire, ISBN 978-0-7478-0679-0, OCLC 213309491
  7. ^ "WHEN Mrs. Barbara Castle, in her role of Minister of - 15th August 1969 - The Commercial Motor Archive". archive.commercialmotor.com.
  8. ^ "Runcorn New Town - 7.3 Transport". rudi.net. Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  9. ^ "Runcorn buses enthusiast site detailing the busway" (PDF). Members.lycos.co.uk. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 September 2016. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
  10. ^ Assessing travel time impacts of measures to enhance bus operations - Jepson, D.; Ferreira, L., Road & Transport Research, December 1999. Retrieved 6 December 2007.)
  11. ^ Los Angeles Archived 11 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine (from the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Commission website. Retrieved 6 December 2007.)
  12. ^ "Transit Lanes - National Association of City Transportation Officials". 18 April 2016.
  13. ^ "Pavement Markings & Color - National Association of City Transportation Officials". National Association of City Transportation Officials. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  14. ^ Krichevsky, Sophie (21 July 2022). "In Downtown Flushing, busway hours reduced". Queens Chronicle. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  15. ^ "Separation Elements - National Association of City Transportation Officials". 19 April 2016.
  16. ^ "Bus gates". www.brighton-hove.gov.uk. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  17. ^ "Bus lanes, gates and tram gates". www.sheffield.gov.uk. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  18. ^ "Signals & Operations - National Association of City Transportation Officials". National Association of City Transportation Officials. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  19. ^ "Peak-Only Bus Lane - National Association of City Transportation Officials". National Association of City Transportation Officials. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  20. ^ "Signs Giving Orders". Highway Code. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
  21. ^ "Shared Bus-Bike Lane - National Association of City Transportation Officials". National Association of City Transportation Officials. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  22. ^ The Use of Bus Lanes by Motorcycles (from Traffic Advisory Leaflet 2/07, Department for Transport, United Kingdom) Archived 8 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ "Sustainable Safety". 2 January 2012.
  24. ^ "Electric cars lose right to drive in Oslo bus lanes". The Local. 6 May 2015. Archived from the original on 18 September 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  25. ^ McNaughton, Maggie (3 October 2006). "1779 cheats spotted in single morning using bus lanes". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
  26. ^ Lyndon, S. Marinelli, P.A. Macintosh, K. and McKenzie, S. High occupancy vehicle lane enforcement: a successful trial in Brisbane by adding a splash of magenta. Proceedings of the 34th Australasian Transport Research Forum, 28–30 September 2011, Adelaide. http://www.atrf11.unisa.edu.au/PaperListing.aspx Archived 31 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
  27. ^ "Red Light Camera and Other Automated Enforcement". SFMTA. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  28. ^ "Bus Lane Camera Violations". NYC 311. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  29. ^ Beevers, Sean; Carslaw, David; Westmoreland, Emily; Mittal, Hrishi (April 2009). "Air pollution and emissions trends in London" (PDF). Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 July 2015. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  30. ^ San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (February 2015). "Church Street Transit Lanes Final Report" (PDF). Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  31. ^ "Automäärät pääkaupunkiseudun bussilinjoilla". www.kuukankorpi.com.
  32. ^ HKL SUY D: 10/2009: Joukkoliikenteen luotettavuuden kehittämisohjelma
  33. ^ Bus lanes (from Roads & Traffic Authority, 18 February 2008
  34. ^ The slow lane - The Economist, Thursday 7 February 2008
  35. ^ "Question on bus lane length - FOI request". Transport for London. 5 April 2024. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
  36. ^ "More bus lanes and bigger stops in Singapore". Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  37. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 February 2010. Retrieved 5 December 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  38. ^ "EMT - Empresa Municipal de Transportes de Madrid, S.A. - Presentación". www.emtmadrid.es. Archived from the original on 29 June 2008.
  39. ^ "Publications | UITP" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 November 2008.
  40. ^ "Berita – PT Transportasi Jakarta". Archived from the original on 23 June 2012. Retrieved 23 April 2012. (Jakarta Trans Jakarta official website. Accessed 26 June 2012.)
  41. ^ a b "TRANSMILENIO S.A. - Estad?sticas Generales". Archived from the original on 10 August 2013. Retrieved 5 April 2009. (Bogotá TransMilenio official website. Accessed 5 April 2009.)
  42. ^ Frota das linhas municipais de ônibus Archived 19 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine (São Paulo local government website. Accessed 27 March 2008.)
  43. ^ Extensão dos corredores Archived 23 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine (São Paulo local government website. Accessed 27 March 2008.)
  44. ^ "BRT Developments in China" (PDF).
  45. ^ Hong Kong The facts (Information Services Department, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, July 2009, from the Hong Kong Transport Department website. Accessed 16 September 2008.)
  46. ^ Transport in Hong Kong > Public Transport > Buses Archived 27 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine (from the Hong Kong Transport Department website. Accessed 16 September 2008.)
  47. ^ Berger, Michael (8 April 2008). "Busspur für Zweiräder". Kurier (in German). Vienna, Austria. p. 20.
  48. ^ "How the Candidates for N.Y.C. Mayor Plan to Improve Transit". New York Times. 27 May 2021. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  49. ^ "Auckland, New Zealand Explores Full Implementation of Electric Bus Fleet - OpenGov Asia". 23 January 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
  50. ^ "New Bus Priority coming". Greater Auckland. 24 November 2014. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
  51. ^ "Transport Department - Transport Department". www.td.gov.hk.
  52. ^ "About". arctunnel.com. Archived from the original on 13 September 2011.
  53. ^ "P201003030140_0140_62651.doc" (DOC). Hong Kong Government. Archived (DOC) from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  54. ^ Hu, Winnie; Schaverien, Anna (12 February 2022). "Eric Adams Is Pushing a Plan to Speed Up Buses. Will It Work?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 6 July 2023.
  55. ^ Dearnaley, Mathew (12 March 2007). "Transport plan will force homes and businesses to move". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
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